House of Fog shed light on this problem. it is tragedy.
House of Sand and Fog. Yes, excellent movie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Sand_and_Fog_%28film%...
Left with Nothing
61–70 of 287 posts
Re: Left with Nothing
#62Islam has the most fair rules against Interest. The Quran says: Chapter 2 - Baqarah - Verse 275: http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/002... (Read the next 10 or so verses) and Chapter 3 - Verse 130: http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/003... "O you who believe! Devour not usury (interest), doubled and multiplied; but fear Allah (God); that you may (really) prosper." Some more…
As an English atheist, possibly surprisingly, I think Islam is right regarding interest. Unfortunately wrapping it up in mumbo jumbo doesn't give it any credibility. Also it isn't really related to the article.
And banks will charge "fees" in lieu of interest to their Islamic customers for products like mortgages
Re: Left with Nothing
#63Ironically, a lot of houses owned by banks as a result of foreclosures ("REOs") are in turn getting foreclosed for failure to pay taxes and HOA fees. Banks were/are not equipped to manage the number of properties they own as a result of foreclosures and they lack the basic infrastructure to maintain these properties not limited to paying taxes and HOA fees, but violations of certain civil statutes like failing to mai…
This simply means that the banks should hurry up and auction the houses instead of sitting on them and waiting for their value to increase.
Re: Left with Nothing
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Property taxes are very progressive and we should absolutely have more of them (fair ones, not like the one in this article where you lose your home if you fail to pay some trivial sum). The reasons are best described in the article below, but in summary, we all pay to defend and enhance your property (by supporting the police, roads, local services, etc). It's fairer for property owners to take a larger share of thi…
Why not just go the whole hog and tax all property. eg you buy a laptop, you have to pay the government a tax each year to keep it. Why just apply it to houses? May as well just prohibit people from owning property. Personally, I think such taxes are a massive disincentive for people to do well. As soon as you have enough money to buy a house, you are penalised for it. Luckily in the UK, we don't have property tax, a…
In Massachusetts they do:
"All personal property situated in the commonwealth is subject to tax, unless specifically exempt by law"
http://www.mass.gov/dor/local-officials/municipal-finance-la...
Re: Left with Nothing
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was referring to the generally sociopathic attitude they tend to adopt toward The Poor. BTW, this is a privatized operation wherein predatory debt collectors buy the liens, foreclose the property, and then flip it at a huge profit. Just another example of government acting as stenographer for the financial industry.
You really have no idea what you're talking about.
Fair enough. Atlas Shrugged was such an awful book I couldn't make it past the first few pages. However, I have enough experience with Rand's followers and their "got mine, screw you" attitude to see how a shitty book can get turned into a political movement. See also Mein Kampf.
Re: Left with Nothing
#66Maybe it's just me, but this reminds me a whole lot of all of the special pieces that the Times has released over the last year or so
Re: Left with Nothing
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't really see Ayn Rand supporting the seizure of property over unpaid taxes. I'm not an Ayn Rand fan, but it's pretty easy to figure out what she does or doesn't believe in from her writings. And taxes are definitely in the "I don't care for that" category.
I am a (limited) Rand fan -- I think she inadvertently explored some interesting ideas, particularly about the limits and problems of wealth/power in The Fountainhead, lost on most of her acolytes though they seem to be -- and my suspicion is that Rand would be pretty much fine with this outcome if we could just get government actors out of the equation and have private parties taking homes from people. For an exampl…
> my suspicion is that Rand would be pretty much fine with this outcome if we could just get government actors out of the equation and have private parties taking homes from people.
Absolute nonsense....I can't think of a single Rand writing that would support this notion in the slightest. One of her primary principles was that the desire for the unearned was a "sin" (or whatever equivalent word she used).
Taking someone's home over a small tax bill is definitely unearned.
Re: Left with Nothing
#68Meta note: this is what journalism can look like today. Made for the web first, not for the paper. Visualizations that are actually insightful - and most importantly a well researched story.
Absolutely - I noticed that too. Exceptionally well done from a web publishing standpoint.
They researched this for 10 months, not 10 minutes. The quality of the research shows.
Re: Left with Nothing
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an English atheist, possibly surprisingly, I think Islam is right regarding interest. Unfortunately wrapping it up in mumbo jumbo doesn't give it any credibility. Also it isn't really related to the article.
At least inflation has to be added, and that's without calculating any risk. Otherwise I'll borrow from you $100K and return it 30 years later
I think usury refers to 'excessive and immoral' rates in this context.
Re: Left with Nothing
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would an Ayn Rand acolyte support the state taking the property of private individuals?
I was referring to the generally sociopathic attitude they tend to adopt toward The Poor. BTW, this is a privatized operation wherein predatory debt collectors buy the liens, foreclose the property, and then flip it at a huge profit. Just another example of government acting as stenographer for the financial industry.
> I was referring to the generally sociopathic attitude they tend to adopt toward The Poor.
Do you really expect anyone to engage with you when you call a well-known author a sociopath without justification? Might as well call her a child rapist while you're at it.